The time has come announce that the small but mighty Red & Black Collective will be shutting down. This year we would have turned fifteen years old. In those years, using our collective labor, we have served a lot of vegan dragon noodles and sandwiches. We’ve also made decisions together and taught each other so many skills. We’ve met so many travelers from a...ll over this amazing world and made friendships and relationships that will last forever. We’ve created and maintained some of the only and last low-income housing in inner Southeast Portland. We’ve housed & supported Portland Books to Prisoners as a collection point and by hosting their library & workspace in our basement. We’ve hosted countless local and touring bands and other DIY, all-ages events. We’ve kept our space as safe we could as workers and as a community -- even when that's been controversial. We’ve acted in solidarity with women, children & youth, queer people, trans folks, and nonbinary folks, people of color, immigrants & undocumented people, disabled and differently-abled folks, survivors of rape and abuse, people experiencing houselessness, mental health issues and drug addiction, sex workers, organizing workers, underpaid workers and laid off workers, and the environment and our animal friends. And we’ve done so with huge love for each other, unquenchable anger at a system which seeks to silence and destroy all that is beautiful in this world, and ultimately, with a tireless hope that a new way of doing things is possible.

We have the deepest gratitude for all the people who have supported this project in so many ways over these long years. We could create a list of countless thank yous and appreciations that would run on and on forever. And while we wish to impart our incredible gratefulness to our community around the world, we also want to end this portion of our journey with a continued call to action. Please, please continue to use your spaces and bodies and words for smashing patriarchy, racism, classism, and all the other oppressions that stand in the way of our happiness and safety. Stand up for each other and with each other. Call each other out and when you are called out, take responsibility for your actions and fix them! Organize with each other and while learning how to take care of yourselves and your communities.

We are still going to be fundraising in order to close our business as responsibly as we are able. Please stay in touch with us. You can get ahold of us if you have questions or business with us, would like to help us out with moving or fundraising at redandblackcafe@gmail.com.

With incredible gratitude and sadness and pride,
See you in the streets,

The Red & Black Cafe Collective

Id be lying if I didn't say this made me smile just a little.

Go figure, a "business" that routinely has to beg its "customers" for donations to pay the rent closes up shop. Guess maybe they shouldn't have ostracized the Law Enforcement community like they did, Cops like coffee and stuff. Might have been enough to keep the doors open another day.

I have to laugh at the part about "We are still going to be fundraising in order to close our business as responsibly as we are able"

I read that as "We don't want to be in debt up to our eyeballs because of our failed business plan and are really hoping that other people will pay for us one last time so we aren't left holding the bag of debt we have created."

I'm afraid I have to agree with you. The way they treated Portland Police really rubbed me the wrong way. As with so many that claim to be open minded and tolerant, they have shown over the years to be closed minded and intolerant of those they don't like. As for their business model, clearly it's not one that works well. I'm surprised they made it 15 years. I guess the "oppression" of capitalism has spoken. They probably would have been much happier if they could have received government grants or federal mandates that required people to patronize their business (all except police officers, of course).

I notice they did leave some folks/groups out of the list of all those they "included" over the years. I guess their "unquenchable anger" at those folks that aren't on that list didn't work out for them in the end. If they, in their tolerance and open mindedness couldn't be bothered to allow a union worker (folks they claim to support) who happens to be a police officer to patronize their business, then I'm happy to let them go. Since we seem to be happy to close down other businesses that discriminate against certain groups, then this closure is probably justified on that basis alone.

What hypocrites. Yeah, it's all about tolerance and peace and understanding unless they disagree with you. Then you're the devil and they have no problem discriminating against you. Maybe we should have a fund raiser for them, get them one way tickets to a nice, controlled, communist country where they could really be a cog in the wheel of the government.....I'm down.

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